A Timely Vision

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” I finished a chip and waited for the question.

“What makes you so certain that Mrs. Mason didn’t kill her sister? Is that a Duck thing, all for one and one for all?”

I thought about it. “I’ve known her all my life. She taught most of the people who live here at some point in their school careers. She was widowed young like her sister. She never had any children of her own. She gives to every children’s charity that exists, besides being an all-around good person.”

He nodded. “I get that. But you know, sometimes good people do bad things. The case against her may be circumstantial, but it’s strong. When I was working in the system, I would’ve considered this a slam dunk.”

“Why did you offer to defend her?”

“Because she didn’t have anyone else, and everyone is entitled to representation. That’s what our government is based on. She seemed like a worthy cause to me.”

“That’s very good of you, Luke. Even if you don’t think she’s innocent.”

He leaned his head closer to mine across the narrow table. “It’s enough that you feel she’s innocent, Dae.”

I was very flattered by the way he said it. I glanced up as someone brushed by us and looked into Kevin’s slightly sunburned face. I moved away from Luke suddenly, as though we’d been doing something wrong. Then felt silly for doing it. “Hi, Kevin. I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I needed a break from roof repair.” He nodded to Luke. “Hey there.”

Luke nodded back in that way all men seem born to understand. “How’s it going, Brickman?”

“Would you like to join us?” I ventured, since he seemed alone.

“No, thanks. I’m meeting someone. I’ll talk to you later.”

I watched him walk away and wondered if Shayla would be tripping in after him. Our food arrived after he was gone. Luke and I spent the next thirty minutes making small talk around burritos and enchiladas.

When all the food was gone and the conversation had simply died out, I smiled and said, “I guess I should get back to the shop. Lunch was great.”

“It was. Let’s do it again sometime. Where’s your shop?”

I gave him the directions, which didn’t take long. He picked up the check, and we said good-bye. I walked across Duck Road, wondering how someone who had seemed so interesting could end up being kind of boring. Maybe he was shy, although that didn’t fit my ideas about lawyers.

At any rate, I didn’t expect him to call or anything. We obviously weren’t well matched. I stopped for an extra minute at town hall where Nancy was beaming. “It’s been a very good day,” she told me. “I had misplaced an important message for the chief, and somehow it found its way back to my desk. I think it was the janitor. Then they finally got the phone system working right. I even heard from my daughter. How was the ribbon cutting?”

“About like normal, maybe a few less people.” I took my messages from her, hoping there would be one from the chief explaining Silas Butler’s message.

“And there was food too!” She pushed back her hair. “Someone needs to get after the other chamber members. What if a newspaper decided to cover a ribbon cutting? Say, about last night, did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary? ’Cause I have to tell you, I had a lot of wine, and I’m blaming it on a few things.”

“Like what?”

“There was a sound. It was like someone was talking, in a breathy kind of way, you know? Then on the way home, I saw some shadows where there shouldn’t have been shadows. Do you believe in ghosts, Dae?”

“I’d like to. I haven’t ever seen one. But I did hear something last night at the Blue Whale. I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t have that much wine. I think someone was trying to tell us something.”

Nancy’s red lips formed an O. “That’s what I was thinking too. I think Wild Johnny Simpson knows that some people think Miss Elizabeth killed him. He loved her even though he left. He doesn’t want her blamed for his death.”

“I guess that’s possible.”

“Any word on Miss Mildred?”

“Not really.” I didn’t want to repeat what Luke had told me. I didn’t have the heart for it. There was no message from Chief Michaels in the small stack of notes she gave me. That made me feel even worse. Why hadn’t the chief told me about Silas Butler? “I have to get back to the shop, Nancy. I’ll see you later.”

“All right, sweetie. You take care.”

I followed the boardwalk back to Missing Pieces, hardly noticing the antics of the gulls over the water. I was surprised to find the “Open” sign out and the door unlocked. Without thinking that someone might have broken in, I walked inside and looked around.

“I hope you don’t mind.” Gramps was down the aisle with the dinnerware. He wasn’t alone. “Mary Lou wanted to come in and take a look around.”

Mary Lou smiled and waved. “Hi, Dae. I can’t believe I’ve never been in here. You have a huge collection. Mind if I look around with Horace?”

“That’s fine.” I gave Gramps the you-know-what-to-sell look and walked back outside. I was surprised to find Kevin about to walk in. “Done with lunch already? Shayla eats like a bird, but this is quick even for her.”

He smiled. “What makes you think I had lunch with Shayla? I think she’s dating your future husband right now.”

“My future husband?” I searched my brain and remembered that he’d heard Tim propose to me at the Blue Whale. “That proposal was something he does from time to time. He started in high school and won’t take no for an answer.”

“Unless he’s seeing someone else?”

“Exactly. Sorry for the Shayla crack. I know she likes you.”

“I like her too, but not in the way you’re thinking. I’m a humble innkeeper now. I don’t think my life is exciting enough for her. Maybe she and Tim will work things out.”

“That would be nice, but unlikely.”

“Is that jealousy I hear? You don’t want him, but you don’t want anyone else to want him either?”

“No! That is definitely not it.” I laughed, but wondered what brought him to the shop. Whatever it was, I was glad to see him. There was no one else I could talk to about Chief Michaels. Gramps would never take me seriously and worse, would feel the need to tell the chief. “You came to see me?”

“Yeah. Have you got a few minutes?”

We went to sit down on one of the boardwalk benches overlooking the water. It was a quiet day, probably a lot of visitors on the beaches since it wasn’t so hot. The water lapped gently at the shore, and I spotted a bicycle tire someone had thrown out down there. I’d have to remember to mention it to the public works guys.

“I had lunch with an old friend of mine who’s down here with the SBI,” Kevin said. “He’s working on both cases. They know it was a .22-caliber pistol that killed Wild Johnny. The bullet was still in his head. They’re working on the DNA material they have, Johnny’s, and the evidence they found with him. He had a calendar open on the desk. He met with Miss Elizabeth the day before he died.”

I took in the information. “Or at least he was supposed to meet with her. We’ll never know if he did or not.”

“I’m afraid evidence doesn’t work like that. The SBI will assume they met. A natural assumption after that would be that she went to the Blue Whale and shot him. Obviously, he trusted whoever killed him. He let her in his room and didn’t look around to see what she was doing. Miss Elizabeth fits that profile.”

“And she’s not here to defend herself.”

“Yeah. That makes her the perfect suspect. Everyone likes a closed case.”

I took a deep breath. I hadn’t known Kevin long, but I trusted him. I needed someone to hear what I suspected about Chief Michaels. “There’s something else. I can’t tell anyone else about this. I hope I can trust you with it.”

“What is it?”

Strangely, I felt better that he didn’t try to convince me to trust him. Maybe that doesn’t make much sense, but I don’t like people who try too hard. “It’s about something that happened last night at the seance.” I told him about Nancy and the note I found next to her desk. I explained about Silas Butler, minus the folklore, and kept to